I’ve been blogging for about a year and nobody reads it because there are too many text blogs out there. I think you would have better luck vlogging. Vloggers don’t have so much competition and they get more feedback than a text blog does.
How much time do you spend on each blog entry Jeff? You tend to consistently come up with some particularly well researched, high quality, meaty stuff, but that takes time. I guesstimate that if I were to go for the same quality and frequency I’d probably be at it for 4-5 hours a day at least, if not full time.
It’s true. There is an aspect of “I lost 50 pounds in one month! You can too! (Results Not Typical)” in this post. My results may be atypical.
Talent (particularly writing talent) helps. There’s no doubt about it. Still, you can accomplish a lot through sheer effort. And most people don’t even try, so the very act of setting a goal and working towards it sets you apart from the majority of your peers.
Who needs talent when you have intensity?
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000187.html
To be fair, my goal is 5 posts a week now, and I don’t always meet that. But I never dip below 4. Like it says in the original Larry O’Brien quote-- they don’t all have to be haymakers. You just have to keep throwing punches. Some of them will land, and the more you do it, the better you get at it.
Pick whatever schedule works for you. And be realistic. I think starting with one post a month, like Catto, is a fine goal. Try to slowly ramp it up a bit over time as you get into the groove, and you’re on your way.
But in 2004, that advice would have been “start in 2001”. The only thing that’s certain is that until you start, you cannot reap any benefits.
Lesson: start NOW.
Hi Jeff,
I couldn’t agree more with you that success takes time. My favorite quote is: “It took me ten years to become and overnight success.” This is more true than most people believe.
I’ve been posting on my personal blog for two years now, and I can definitely see the growth. At first it’s almost imperceptible. You get excited to hit your first thousand unique visitors in a month. Now there isn’t a day where I don’t hit four figures of unique visitors a day! Yes, each day I now get more traffic than I did for each of my first 2-3 months!
These things take time and effort, but if you keep at it, success will come.
Regards,
Steph
Hey Now Jeff,
I remember the interview on DNR you stated the same thing to set a number of time to post as a goal for your self. Because I heard you say that I’ve been attempting to post 1 per month, plan to increase next year. To answer your question the last time I posted was 10.9.07 Your blog is great, I’ve learned so much from you in such a short time (less than a yesr). As always thanks for the info.
Coding Horror Fan,
Catto
Jeff, great post.
I have had a blog for a couple years and have found it difficult to keep a consistant posting schedule. Your post is going to motivate me to post on a regular basis, even if the content is not that great but to get in the habit of being a regular blogger.
Thanks!
Nice one Jeff, thanks for the advice. My own blog is dead new, and I’ve been wondering how to get people to read it (although the nice people at Fog Creek read and commented on my FogBUGZ 6.0, which was nice). Thanks for the advice.
I find the hard part is finding good external references to back up or balance my own thoughts. Sometimes Google is just too powerful and fishing the stuff you really want out of 1.2 billion results is hard going.
I’m just finishing up college, and my blog was the primary factor in getting my second internship at a Fortune-10 company. I didn’t see my blog as very successful until I received that inquiring email out of the blue. Cheers!
So, when is the self help book coming out?
Thanks for the inspiration! You have a dedicated link on my blog’s nav pane. Still waiting for the visiting masses…
AGREE!
Thanks for letting us all benefit from your “personal development”!
I gave up my blog shortly after realizing I had nothing left to say. That’s an even more important skill than writing every day. But my urge to be creative ends up surfacing in other ways. Right now I’m one of the few people posting anything interesting (IMHO) to the website Twitter.
My problem was always that I simply didn’t have enough to say. I’d have 3-4 things I wanted to say in a month at best. Just not enough for a reasonable blog. I think many people might be like that.
Congrats, Jeff 
We love Coding Horror !!!
I totally agree with you on this one. If people would spend more time blogging and less time posting comments on other blogs…
Committment/consistency is only half the battle.
What’s made this blog great is that you are able to express and clearly communicate your passion. People who are passionate about computers (and programming) read this blog and are touched.
I recommend taking your ad revenue and getting
a) a dedicated host with lots of bandwidth
b) Digg-like commment threading!
This is good stuff, up to your usual standard, but I need a more nuts and bolts kind of post.
What software do I need?
Do I need to run my own web site?
You did a bit on how to handle the pictures, and that was good, but I have no idea where to actually start.
And by the way, I really, really hate HTML. So I need an editor that hides that awful stuff away from me.
Thanks.
Jeff,
I am one of the 100,000. Love your work.
Keep it up.
Colin
Keep it up! You always find ways of articulately explaining those little things about software/development that always creep up in the back of my head and start nagging me but that which I don’t have the time to organize and/or write a page about.
There’s no telling how many people I’ve turned on to your blog. It is great. But if you didn’t have a new post as often as you do, I would have stopped reading a long time ago. Cheers to years (of hard work).